Listening Strategies Reference List Adapted in part from Brown (1994), Chamot (1995), Goh (1997), Mendelsohn (2000), Murphy (1987), O’Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989), O’Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares, Kupper, and Russo (1995), White (2007), and Willing (1987).
Try to understand the reason for a particular message
Seek clarification
Get accustomed to speed and find ways to cope with it
Identify listening problems and plan how to improve them
Ask questions for clarification
Ask the speaker to repeat
Listen to a variety of different accents
Recognize patterns
Use intonation and pausing to segment words and phrases
Recognize tones/intonation features
Recognize discourse markers
Identify stressed words
Listen for structures
Listen for transition words/organization markers (i.e. cause and effect, compare and contrast)
Listen for content words
Listen for details
Listen for linking words
Listen for new keywords, already learned keywords, and repeated keywords
Listen for phrases
Listen for pronunciation of vocabulary words
Listen for tone, intonation, stress
Listen for specific vocabulary words
Use an interactive approach: both top-down and bottom-up processing
Segment text into larger chunks
Use non-verbal cues
Use visual clues (pictures, body language, slides)
Plan what you’re going to listen for
Decide what the main purpose of listening is
Self-monitor
Check how well you understood
Check to see if you have the right idea
Paraphrase what you hear
Empathize with the speaker (try to understand why the speaker wants to communicate a certain message)
Motivate yourself to listen
Lower anxiety about listening
Use imagery (relating new information in context of familiar visualizations)
Visualize the setting/situation
Focus attention
Pay attention to repetitions
Clear the mind before listening
Refocus concentration
Use prior knowledge
Predict what language will come next
Predict the purpose by the context
Make inferences when information is not stated or missed
Guess the meaning of unknown words
Guess the overall meaning
Piece together meaning from words that are heard
Verify hypotheses
Selective attention (focus on specific criteria)
Directed attention (focus on general task and ignore irrelevant distractions)
Ignore unfamiliar words
Listen for the gist
Pay attention to the main points
Use association (keeping similar ideas together)
Use elaboration (relating new information to prior knowledge or other information in the new information)
Make associations between what you already know and what you hear
Personalize by making connections between your personal life and what you hear
Group or classify knowledge to be learned
Additional strategies for in-class listening practice:
Take notes of information to remember
Provide a personal response to the information or ideas presented in the listening
Act out what you hear
Use subtitles in movies/TV
Preview vocabulary
Cooperate with peers
Cooperate with proficient speakers in the target language
Engage in pair work and/or group work
Provide yourself with opportunities to listen
Talk to proficient speakers often
Listen to a variety of different kinds of listening texts
Adapted in part from Brown (1994), Chamot (1995), Goh (1997), Mendelsohn (2000), Murphy (1987), O’Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989), O’Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares, Kupper, and Russo (1995), White (2007), and Willing (1987).
- Try to understand the reason for a particular message
- Seek clarification
- Get accustomed to speed and find ways to cope with it
- Identify listening problems and plan how to improve them
- Ask questions for clarification
- Ask the speaker to repeat
- Listen to a variety of different accents
- Recognize patterns
- Use intonation and pausing to segment words and phrases
- Recognize tones/intonation features
- Recognize discourse markers
- Identify stressed words
- Listen for structures
- Listen for transition words/organization markers (i.e. cause and effect, compare and contrast)
- Listen for content words
- Listen for details
- Listen for linking words
- Listen for new keywords, already learned keywords, and repeated keywords
- Listen for phrases
- Listen for pronunciation of vocabulary words
- Listen for tone, intonation, stress
- Listen for specific vocabulary words
- Use an interactive approach: both top-down and bottom-up processing
- Segment text into larger chunks
- Use non-verbal cues
- Use visual clues (pictures, body language, slides)
- Plan what you’re going to listen for
- Decide what the main purpose of listening is
- Self-monitor
- Check how well you understood
- Check to see if you have the right idea
- Paraphrase what you hear
- Empathize with the speaker (try to understand why the speaker wants to communicate a certain message)
- Motivate yourself to listen
- Lower anxiety about listening
- Use imagery (relating new information in context of familiar visualizations)
- Visualize the setting/situation
- Focus attention
- Pay attention to repetitions
- Clear the mind before listening
- Refocus concentration
- Use prior knowledge
- Predict what language will come next
- Predict the purpose by the context
- Make inferences when information is not stated or missed
- Guess the meaning of unknown words
- Guess the overall meaning
- Piece together meaning from words that are heard
- Verify hypotheses
- Selective attention (focus on specific criteria)
- Directed attention (focus on general task and ignore irrelevant distractions)
- Ignore unfamiliar words
- Listen for the gist
- Pay attention to the main points
- Use association (keeping similar ideas together)
- Use elaboration (relating new information to prior knowledge or other information in the new information)
- Make associations between what you already know and what you hear
- Personalize by making connections between your personal life and what you hear
- Group or classify knowledge to be learned
Additional strategies for in-class listening practice:- Take notes of information to remember
- Provide a personal response to the information or ideas presented in the listening
- Act out what you hear
- Use subtitles in movies/TV
- Preview vocabulary
- Cooperate with peers
- Cooperate with proficient speakers in the target language
- Engage in pair work and/or group work
- Provide yourself with opportunities to listen
- Talk to proficient speakers often
- Listen to a variety of different kinds of listening texts
- Listen to things you enjoy
- Listen to things you are interested in
- Activate knowledge using the title
- Predict what the listening will be about
- Translate into your native language
Posted by Heidi Hyte at 12:20 PMhttp://www.esltrail.com/2011/10/esl-listening-strategies-for-english.html